I used to visit friends in Evergreen back in the late 70s when everyone complained about Denver Power & Light or whatever it was called. Was really surprised to drive in after the big storm and still see brown haze. Traffic has made up for the utility company I guess. The botanic garden was really nice though - spent a good three hours there.

@qbrozen, the $13992 was for one with 21,xxx miles, and no Preferred Pkg (FL-based dealership and will require shipping to CA). The one I ultimately bought is local here in the Bay Area with only 12,7xx miles and more gizmos (according to Carfax, the MSRP was $19,720, manufactured June 2012). Just took delivery a few minutes ago... Other small perks I found were that the car is registered thru June 2014 (so no need to pay for new tags) and XM service paid through Dec 2013 (nice)... Truly happy with the deal.

And thanks, again, to you all for your thoughts and suggestions... CCBA is a great thread and has become one of the longest-lived one on Edmunds.

So, for some reason, probably because I was commuting in the Leaf this morning and that gives me plenty of time to ponder life, I was thinking about which cars in my history have been private party purchases vs non-private (I can't say just dealers because I have 2 that were bought from repair shops).

Anyhoo, I thought mine was drastically tilted in the non-private direction, but its not as bad as I thought. Out of my 37-car history, 10 were purchased from their owners.

And, it turns out there are only 7 new cars out of those 37.

So that means 20/30 used cars were from dealers.

What does that mean and why does it matter? Beats me. Just my random thoughts. But it did make me add a new column to my spreadsheet just now to differentiate between the used/new.

As someone who took the cure (reluctantly, they had to do an intervention and send me away), I am no longer eligible for the CCBA, as my recent car-buying experiences are fairly limited and tame in nature by comparison to my glory days.

But all your posts motivated me to try and remember all the cars I've owned. I'm sure I've left out some.

Once a chronic car buyer, always a chronic car buyer. I must be constantly monitored. I wear a tracking bracklet in fact. :P My only consolation is that my nephew has taken up the fallen regimental colors, and he's on a tear to exceed my lifetime achievements.

The conspiracy theorist in me says there's some sort of secret, lucrative Edmunds forum host pension system he's cashing in on. :P He was very helpful to people in the lease forums. There are a lot of "one hit wonder" messages there, it seems like a lot of people don't come back to say thanks or at least provide feedback about what kind of deal they were offered.

Impressive. My BIL had a Trooper II in the late 80s. I used it once. Kind of liked it.

I used to be more active, but that has come to an end more recently, mostly due to finances. Not sure what will happen when the kids are done college and moved out! I hope to move to a cheaper area with a bigger garage, that lets me have a rotating "junker" slot to feed my habit.

I do know that I had 3 in my 1 HS driving year, and I think 6? by the time I got out of college?

Stick: The rotating junker is a great way to do this on the cheap. One of my favorites was 1994 (bought in 2006) Ford Thunderbird LX V8 that I bought for $2250 and drove trouble free for two years and about 40k miles! I sold it for $1800 with 140k on it. The delta insurance on top of my primary was actualy negative ... it cost less to ensure both cars than just my primary (as I used the liability only Ford as the commute vehicle).